Rover figure from Carousel of Progress

[gmontag451]

This is my first post, I hope I'm in the right place!

I'm making a replica of Rover, the animatronic dog from Disney's Carousel of Progress! My wife and I met working in Tomorrowland and we've wanted to build one for years. Using photos and a maintenance manual I found online, I've been building the pneumatic mechanics in Fusion 360, which I plan to adapt to work with servo motors. My wife will sculpt the shell and design the fur once the insides are resin-printed and assembled.

I think I have a pretty good idea of what each joint does, but the photos are very dark and it's difficult to figure out what's going on. I could forge ahead and make it work, but I'd like to stay as close as possible to the original before adding servos. I'm hoping someone might be able to provide some guidance!

This is what I have so far: The two main actuators lift the neck up and down and sway the neck left to right. I believe that actuator 7 (highlighted in yellow in the photos) makes the head turn left to right, 6 seems to make the head nod, and 32 probably makes the head cock right and left. I've also just finished building the eye mechanism in 3D.

The areas I can't sort out are:
- Around point 24 are two or three joints which I think might be solid and immobile.
- I can't figure out where actuator 6 or 7 connect... In one photo 6 seems to be very short and doesn't reach the head, but in another it seems to be very long. Actuator 7 seems to have a long curved bar to extend its reach, but I can't figure out where it connects because the angle seems wrong. (My guesses are the backside of point 12, backside of 23, or left side of head)

I'll keep posting my "Progress" and if anyone has any thoughts about how this guy works, I'd really appreciate any ideas! (The angles and connections below are inaccurate because I'm just trying out a quick way to make it work and fix it later.)

 

[gmontag451]

I've made a cardboard head to help me figure out the connections. I'm pretty happy with it, except that the head moves in a U shape when it sways left to right, so either I have it wrong or the COP figure compensates by tilting the head. My guess for the jaw connection requires the actuator to be normally extended, and retract to open the mouth. Would an actuator be used in a normally extended fashion?

 

[alensatemybuick]

Cool project from my fav. ride at Disney World.

 

[gmontag451]

It's been a while, and the first version of the resin-printed head has been finished for a long time, but I had too much going on and had to take a break. But I finally took some photos! I still need to fix some things in Fusion 360 and figure out how to connect servos, so it will be a while before I go any further with the project. Resin was great for a first try, but I think it might be a little too heavy and has a lot of friction, plus thin parts are very soft and pliable which makes the eye mechanism sloppy. I'll probably replace some of the parts with FDM-printed or metal/plastic parts.

The cardboard mockup in the back looking a little cuter than the 3D printed resin version.

A rubber band helps the eye blink mechanism since the resin isn't quite stiff enough. The large cylinder at the back would be an actuator in a real AA figure, but here it's a place-holder until I figure out the servo connections.

As usual, I didn't keep notes! There's an extra bracket laying there, and it's anyone's guess if it's important or just an extra...

The eye mechanism is mostly the same as an old AA figure, but very sloppy and squishy in resin-printed form.
The white oval shapes are supposed to slide through the holes in the side brackets, but its just too imprecise and gets hung up so I just glued them to the center.

I'm really proud of figuring out how the ears work just from looking at a dark and blurry photo. They look dirty because I added graphite to make them move more smoothly.

 

[nick daring]

Carousel of Porgress! Great Project!